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The second edition of the BBC Arabic film festival opened Friday evening at the BBC Radio Theatre. Over four days the central London venue will screen 20 titles, ranging from feature-length and short documentaries, fiction shorts and reportage, free of charge to the public.

Symptoms of Post-Arab Spring syndrome are evident in many of the films in this year's program.

"Cairo Drive," the 2013 piece by U.S.-born Egyptian filmmaker Sherief AlKatsha, premiered at the former Abu Dhabi Film Festival, where it won the prize for best documentary.

Premised on the disastrous attempts to develop the city of Luxor, the film interviews a Coptic political activist, a collector of historical film negatives, a socialist writer and a 3-D designer to assemble an intimate account of how Egypt got where it has.

The winners in the festival's four competition categories – short film, feature-length documentary; short documentary and reportage – will be announced at Monday's closing night gala, hosted by comedian Shappi Khorsandi.